Last weekend I had the pleasure to host my friends Alan and Paul again. We only managed to fish the Saturday due to the weather, but we gave it a good go fishing all day practically. Last year I had a tough week with the lads and we really struggled to get some good fish in the boat. This year I was determined not to let that happen again...
We had great conditions on the day so much so that we were possibly overconfident... We started at a shallow, kelpy mark that I tend to visit a lot this year. We got fish straight away but then they got fussy very quickly and the action slowed right down. It was infuriating as we could see loads of fish on the sounder and also feeling bites on our lures but no hookups. We spent a bit longer than I would've allowed regularly on this mark as I was thinking that the fish were waiting for the right tide state. Nevertheless I decided to move eventually and we headed for some slightly deeper spots. Thankfully we found some active fish and the boys got stuck in!
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| Paul with a nice coalie. |
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| Warrior pollack |
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| Alan with a plump fish in perfect conditions |
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| Good times |
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| Getting better... |
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| That's more like it! |
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| A nice one for Paul. |
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| Eyes bigger than his belly this wrasse.. |
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| Alan's lure pile... |
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| They're both in! |
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| Double trouble |
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| Great condition on these fish |
I had some new rods to try as well, one being the MH Spro Specter finesse spin (2.42m 18-48g) and the other the Mifine Maximus (2.28m 10-40g). They both got some fish and I'm happy with them but can't form an opinion until after much further use.
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| Maximus! |
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| New MH rod |
We noticed extensive shoals of baitfish throughout the day and I persisted with topwaters as it seemed perfect for them. The fish had different ideas though and I only managed one to the usual Autowalker...
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| Topwater love. |
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| Get in! |
The lads got a good number of fish with the bigger ones around 3kg but no monsters showed up this time. I'm glad the fish played ball in the end as it was honestly a cracking day weather wise.
I'm starting to think that the tinnie may not be as 'stealthy' as the sibs when approaching shallow water fish. It could be the noise reverberating from the metal hull, the shiny colour and/or even the 2 stroke engine that does it, but its been a few times now that we approach a mark, catch a couple fish and they then go into lockjaw. I'm going to try hanging off slightly farther from the fish next time and also turn off the engine (use the electric motor) before closing in. See how it goes.
I've not fished at all for myself the past couple months but hopefully I'll manage it this month as guiding has slowed down. I really want to take the boat out the west side and try a session for spurdogs...
Tight lines
